Too much homework, too much stress, too many tests…

Is it really working?

Parents are always concerned about the quality of education they are providing for their children. Education is the key to open future opportunities, achieve stability, obtain good income and succeed in life. But, what happens when the education system available fails to comply with those expectations?

In recent years there has been an increase of anxiety cases among children and teenagers, due to the excessive amount of requirements they need to fulfill and live up to the expectations of parents and society, including completing tons of homework and projects, excelling on standardized tests, achieving high grades at school, practicing competitive sports and getting involved with the arts, while developing social responsibility projects that change the world. That recipe is believed to guarantee the child a place on the coveted list of a high performing college and, with luck, a full ride scholarship.

Once in college, those demands quadruplicate, more over if they attend a top tier university, where competition and challenging subjects, plus the burden of working hard to keep a scholarship or the fact that they are taking hefty student loan debts end up taking a toll on the student emotional health.

While their children work towards their future, involved parents stress out working hard to save money to pay for college and making sure their children receive all the “concerted cultivation” needed to ensure their success. On the other hand, teachers and schools try to cater to every children’s learning needs while preparing them to ace the standardized tests, which will provide a scientific measure of the quality of education they are delivering, and many times the results obtained determine better wages, bonuses and resources for the teachers and the schools.

The story is different on lower income communities, where survival skills and priorities at home take precedence over concerted cultivation, and public schools in many cases perform below the expectations due to the lack of resources.

However, at the same time this turmoil happens at schools and homes, society is evolving and the needs and skills that were required to find a job in the 90s are not the same the World Economic Forum is projecting for 2020. In the majority of schools in the country the education is failing to prepare students for that challenge.

Excessive homework and standardized tests are not the problem but the symptoms. Teachers need to send home part of the workload for the children to cover content, while they devote instructional time to prepare their students for testing, time they would have loved to use on sharing their knowledge and nurturing children; Schools need students to perform well on those tests so they can continue receiving funds to maintain or enhance the educational programs; and students need to excel to fulfill the requirements that will help them access to better educational options. It is a never ending cycle of overworked teachers, overwhelmed students and stressed parents.

Parents, teachers and government have to work together on the herculean task of modifying and enhancing the system, aligning it with the needs the future holds for society.

The “Fourth Industrial Revolution” and the 2020 skills

The fundamentals of the current Education System, with separation by age, grades and subjects and lengthy lectures were introduced in Massachusetts in the 1840s by Horace Mann, state Secretary of Education at the time. The system was based on the “Prussian model” of common schools, where all students in a grade level received the same content, regardless of their location, interest, aptitudes and needs. It is a model created to “turn unruly children into disciplined, judicious citizens”, prepared to follow instructions, ideal to perform at factories that opened after the Industrial Revolution.

How can we still be educating children with an educational model more than 170 years old? Although there have been an evolution, the system still has a lot to do to catch up with the needs of society.

According to Klaus Schwab, Executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum (WEF), a Fourth Industrial Revolution, based on the use of information technology and electronics to automate production, “is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

It is within this digital revolution that today’s children are going to live their productive lives, and they have to develop the skills to succeed on it. The ten most important skills people will need by 2020 are: (Source: World Economic Forum “Future of Jobs Report”)

Complex problem-solving, the capacity to solve problems never seen before in real-world settings.

Critical thinking, Logic and reasoning.

Creativity, the ability to come up with new ideas based on information.

People management.

Coordinating with others: collaboration and interpersonal skills.

Emotional intelligence and social skills.

Judgement and decision-making, the capacity to analyze data and come up with effective conclusions.

Service orientation, looking for ways to help people.

Negotiation: the ability to express points of view, listen and reach agreements.

Cognitive flexibility: the ability to change between different systems of thought.

Those who have access to educational systems that foster those skills will be able to thrive with the new rules that world society is developing.

The “one size fits all” system failed

Creative children in the regular educational system feel miserable, and teachers do too when they cannot get those children to participate, engage and thrive. Schools expect high academic performance from children at levels like kindergarten, when providing instead activities focused more on sensory motor development, self-regulation and socialization skills would better help them obtain a good foundation for higher levels.

In Spain, for example, the concept of homework is introduced gradually starting in first grade, with a limited amount per week, because it is encouraged that the child uses the free time after school to enjoy or engage in other activities such as sports, art, music, etc.

Experts in the area of education consider that some kind of daily assignment related to school work should be done at home to reinforce or “reflect” on what the child has learn during the day. However a workload of homework can be counterproductive, as it shortens the free time a child can devote to simply rest of to do other activities.

The system tries to be “one size fits all” but people come with different abilities and interests. Standardized tests serve the purpose of quantification of school performance, but definitely do a disservice for children who have different learning abilities, when their lack of test-taking skills takes a toll on their personal performance, undermining their self-esteem when their results do not reach the expectations of the system.

Local change is in progress. Be part of the conversation

There have been efforts in recent years to slowly but steadily introduce changes on the current American Education System. Each state has been responsible for their initiatives, and there are places like California where education, even at university levels, has evolved to catch up with the needs of society.

Florida has introduced changes too, and locally Miami-Dade Public Schools System has created the Foundation for New Education Initiatives www.giveourstudentstheworld.org, with the mission of securing “supplemental funding for enhancing student achievement through innovation and community engagement.” The foundation has financed initiatives for helping teacher, students and parents develop innovation and creativity projects.

In Miami-Dade, private schools or public schools of choice, such as virtual, charter or magnet schools, are alternatives to the traditional approach. There are even public funds that can be used by parents to have access to private education through the Step Up or Mc Kay scholarships, this one for children with special needs. Until January parents can apply to public magnet schools in Miami-Dade through http://yourchoicemiami.org/

However, involved communities can help shape up their local public schools to their needs. The organization “Educating for the 21st Century” www.edu21c.com, created by entrepreneur and philanthropist Ted Dintersmith in California, provides resources and training to communities that want to spark change on their local education system. With their documentary “Most likely to succeed” they promote in the communities local debates on the future of education.

A group of Doral parents and business owners have got together to explore options to better help other parents and local schools to succeed on preparing the children on the 21st century skills. Those interested on being part can write to educationaltransformationdoral@gmail.com for more information.

Parents have to be proactive and get informed of the choices they have within the system, and the rights their children have to access programs or accommodations that fit their needs. When communities come together the transformation of the educational system towards the 21st century can speed up, to benefit the children and the future of the country.